Simsbury Elementary School Participates In Bike To School Day

SIMSBURY — The bike racks at Latimer Lane School were full Wednesday when scores of students, accompanied by parents and chaperones, took the bike paths and streets to bike and walk to school.

The school held a bike to school day on Wednesday, in concert with the national Walk-Bike to School Day, to encourage students and parents to walk and bike to school. It was the second year the school participated in the event.

A group of bikers were joined by First Selectwoman Mary Glassman, and Larry Linonis, an avid cyclist and director of Simsbury Free Bikes.

"Seeing so many kids walk and ride to school, that's what makes our community great," Glassman said. "Hopefully it will remind people to get out and do some exercise and become a more bike/walk friendly community."

Debbie Thibodeau, whose the chair of the Latimer Lanes safe routes to school committee and has two kids at Latimer Lane, helped organize the event and says it's a continued step in the right direction.

"We had an excellent turnout. We a had lots and lots of kids walk and bike," Thibodeau said.

She added: "When we started talking about the event last fall we started to see more bikes on the bike rack and I think we will continue to see more bikes on the bike rack."

The committee sent out a survey to gauge families' interest in pursuing safe routes and that about 75 percent of the families were interested, she said.

Other activities have been held throughout the year to encourage bicycle and walking safety, and the school system is currently piloting a program for bike safety at schools, Thibodeau said.

The committee receives help and advice from the state's safe routes to school program, and in the future Thibodeau said the committee will host the state's group for a walk audit of the area.

But the event wasn't just for bikers, there were students, along with some staff members, who walked to school from some of the 12 designated locations.

Debbie Driscoll, a language arts consultant at the school, was one of the staff members who walked to school. She said she tries to regularly walk to school, both for health and to lessen her impact on the environment

Other events are being held in Simsbury as national bike month continues. In 2010, Simsbury was named the first bicycle friendly community in the state by the League of American Bicyclists.